13.12.12

As you can read here, I came to these leather sample bags because I wanted to have a new bag matching my dress in no time. This bag is made of four leather samples, that were laying around in the office. The only things I bought were a leather lace and eyelets. When you want to try this bag as well, please don't bother about sizes. Exact sizes don't matter. You can choose to make a landscape or a portrait model. The tutorial will do in both cases. Just avoid cutting the leather when possible to save time. Here and here you can see reversible examples. The bag pictured above measures 16 x 26 cm.
When you don't know where to get the leather, maybe these links (that I didn't try myself) work out for you: Dawanda nl and en.

This is what you need:

4 (preferably very different) leather samples. If you want to know: mine are 20 x 25 cm and are a good quality of Moore & Giles. Or cut 4 rectangles out of leather if you don't get your hands on samples. You might even use some thicker quality felt instead of leather.

4 eyelets, inner diameter about 5 mm, to hammer through the leather to finish the holes for the strap. When you want to make a non-reversible bag, 2 eyelets are sufficient.

normal but good quality thread

double sided foam tape (like Tesa, often used to mount mirrors)

3 m of flat leather lace. Note that the double lace should fit through the rings. Mine is 5 mm wide.

For the strap only I recommend to increase the upper thread tension to 7. For the total bag use a wider stitch, for instance 4. Best is to make a test before. Measure the desired length of the strap crossing your body (= a). Cut the lace at a length of (a + 10 cm) x 2. Probably this will be something between 2.75 and 3 m. Fold the lace double in the length and start sewing about 5 cm from the edge. Secure and sew (slowly!) all the way to the other end, stop 5 cm before and secure. Cut loop.

Then mix the samples to decide which one will be on the flap, which on the backside and so on. Note the reversibility: front side flap will be backside flap as well, backside flap will be front side flap, backside will be front side and front side will be backside after turning! Note the different combinations.

Tape the samples two by two ( front side flap and backside, backside flap and front side) with a 5 cm overlap, laying the right sides of the samples down and both flap samples on top of the other two samples. Stitch the 4 overlaps only, about 3 mm from the edge.

Putting right sides together, tape the sides and align the edges of the front side and backside. In my case these are the two red samples. Tape the corners and stitch the two long sides, on about 6 mm distance of the edge. Remove tape.

Then mark a line 2 cm from the flap bottom side. Draw a curved line like pictured: between the middle of the curve and the line you draw is about 1 cm. Do the same on the other bag bottom side but mark the line on a distance of 4 cm from the edge. Sew both curved lines. By sewing the curves, the sides will be straight in the end, after you turned the bag. Cut leather, leaving a 6 mm seam.

Stitch 4 rounded corners. Secure by stitching at least two times. My corners had a radius of about 1,5 cm. You can draw a circle before if necessary. Cut leather on the corners, leaving a 3 mm seam.

Turn your bag inside out and poke out the corners, just using your fingers. Mark 4 tiny points on the flap sides, 3 cm from the sides, 2 cm from the edge of the leather.

Turn bag again and use pins to copy the points on the inside. First hammer two holes through both layers using the little tool that belongs to the eyelets. Then hammer the eyelets one by one through the 4 holes. (Or hammer only two pieces if your bag won't be reversible.) Be careful not to damage the right sides of the leather. My boyfriend used a washcloth to protect it. Then this is what you get after turning again.

To have a better result I recommend to tape the flap sides together on the inside, using the foam tape. Pull the lace through the holes and make knots. Cut eventually too long ends. There you are!

This tutorial is for personal use only and may not to be used commercially.

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